Inclusion in education, occupational marginalization and apartheid: An analysis of Chilean education policies

ABSTRACT

This case study discusses the implementation of the Chilean school inclusion policies and their relationship with occupational injustice, from the perspective of post-structural ethnography and governmentality studies, as well as through a political discourse analysis. Within a neoliberal education setting ruled by the rationality of accountability, issues remain in the ontology of deficit, on the one hand, and in associated technologies including evidence and diagnostic, on the other. The interest of the revealed government mindset lies on resource effectiveness, where the prevalence of economic discourses establishes a productive relationship with inclusion discourses. We argue that this hegemonic rationality has maintained a seldom questioned influence over normality/difference discourses based on which educational practices are built, resulting in marginalization and occupational apartheid.

KEYWORDS:

• Inclusion
• Educational policies
• Occupational injustice
• Governmentality
• Political discourse analysis

TAMBIÉN PUBLICADO EN ESPAÑOL:

• https://doi.org/10.1080/14427591.2018.1487260

View translated version:

Inclusión escolar, marginación y apartheid ocupacional: Análisis de las políticas educativas Chilenas

Acknowledgements

This author would like to acknowledge the contributions of the informants involved in the research reported in this paper. In part, this study was completed as part of the author's Doctoral work, supervised by PhD Claudia Matus and supported by Normality, Difference and Education (www.nde.cl). The writing of this article was supported by CONICYT (Chilean National Commission of Scientific and Technological Research), through FONDECYT Grant Nº 11170479.

ORCID

Marcela Apablaza http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4090-0770

Notes

1 Management refers to a business-like management rationale introduced within public agencies, the main premise of which is to look for efficiency in the use of economic resources (Sisto, 2007).